The Flash Star Grant Gustin Talks the Impact Christopher Reeve Had on Him

In the latest episode of Michael Rosenbaum‘s Inside of Me interview series, the Smallville star spoke with The Flash star Grant Gustin about what it’s like to be heading up a modern-day superhero series. Along the way, the pair had fascinating digressions about life and career that spanned a wide variety of subjects. One was a fan question about what historical figure Gustin would like to meet if he could travel back in time without worrying about accidentally Flashpointing all of us or something. Even so, the butterfly effect likely would have been fairly limited, since the person Gustin chose was Superman: The Movie actor Christopher Reeve, who lived fairly recently and also would have moved in many of the same circles as Gustin.

Gustin, who said it was remarkable that someone had faced the adversity Reeve did and come out of it stronger and more inspirational than before, told Rosenbaum that he had been “devastated” by the loss of Reeve in 2004. In the video above, Rosenbaum also shared a few of his own (admittedly limited) recollections of Reeve, who had appeared on an episode of Smallville in 2003.

“He’s not really a historical figure. I guess he is, kind of, but that was an early hero for me and what happened to him was just so tragic,” Gustin said. “I know he made a whole second life out of it and was able to inspire all kinds of people and do all kinds of positive things, but it was just awful. I was devastated when he passed away. So if I could have known him in his prime, and even gotten to work with him or something, that would have been a lot to me.”

Reeve’s Superman remains a gold standard for many fans, and audiences were particularly pleased to see a version of the character return — played by Superman Returns star Brandon Routh — in The CW’s recent “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event. Routh’s Superman film was a kind of strange animal from the start — it was explicitly a sequel to the Richard Donner films, meaning that it accepted the first two Superman movies as lore and apparently discarded Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. The film was criticized at the time for doing too much to ape the Reeve-led Superman movies, but in hindsight many fans seem to have decided that Routh did a good job with a bad script. Last summer, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” showrunner Marc Guggenheim told ComicBook.com that if he could have had anyone from DC’s past in the crossover, it would have been Reeve.

The Flash airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, followed by episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.